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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/30063918">Darkening Skies</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/LapisAlba/pseuds/LapisAlba'>LapisAlba</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Star Trek Alternate Universes [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Dehydration, Hurt No Comfort, Minor Character Death, Near Death Experiences, Starvation, Tragedy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 10:55:49</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,772</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/30063918</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/LapisAlba/pseuds/LapisAlba</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The end of the world does not come with fire and brimstone. </p><p>Nor does it arrive as a burning asteroid or an unstoppable wave of destruction. </p><p>No.</p><p>It is far more subtle than that and Pavel lives it all.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Star Trek Alternate Universes [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1824973</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Darkening Skies</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>There isn't graphic violence in this but there is a mention of starvation and severe dehydration. So be warned.  </p><p>Just so you know I have written and posted an alternative version of this into another series because I couldn't decide between the two. They're both written in different styles but they follow the same plot so please let me know what you think of the new style I'm trying out. </p><p>Thanks For reading!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The end of the world does not come with fire and brimstone.</p><p>Nor does it arrive as a burning asteroid or an unstoppable wave of destruction.</p><p>No.</p><p>It is far more subtle than that.</p><p>It takes two days for Pavel to realise that something is very wrong. It is only after his flatmate points out that the sky has remained dark as sin since Wednesday that he begins to wonder if maybe he should have gone home for the holidays.</p><p>When he tries to leave he finds that all international flights are cancelled.</p><p>The news is terrifyingly vague about the events that unfold. Information is scarce so he leaves the channel running in the hope someone will say something – anything – of importance.</p><p>By the end of the week Pavel knows three things:</p><p>Global communications are down.</p><p>The sky will not get light again.</p><p>No one is coming to help them.</p><p>Additionally;</p><p>He spent six months on his dissertation for <em>nothing.</em></p><p>The last one isn’t as pressing but he feels vindicated enough by his loss to add it on.</p><p>The sky continues to remain a twilight horror story for the rest of the week. He stays indoors, curtains closed, huddling under blankets trying not to think about the casual way the news throws round words like devastation and global destruction.</p><p>The first thing to run out after The End is food.</p><p>It’s an unavoidable fact that plants simply can’t grow without sunlight and the oppressing gloom of the once bright sky is a constant reminder of the changes they all face. Kevin and Gaila have been taking trips to the various supermarkets dotted around the city but most are now empty and trips only bring back tinned liver which he chokes down with a mixture of relief and pathological hatred.</p><p>The other less anticipated loss is power. The first time the whole building goes dark Pavel is three hours into ‘researching’ the global communications network and its defences in a wild and frivolous attempt to contact his family in Russia. As he finally moves into reengaging the distribution servers his world goes dark and he sits stunned as his veins flood with ice. The thought of prison swirling around his mind along with how he’s too young for his life to end like this and how much his trial was going to upset his mother and –</p><p>– The lights return without warning which surprises him nearly as much as the sudden darkness. He glances at his screen and sees that it was empty of all the data that had previously been there.</p><p>The next few times are less of a shock, but what starts at minutes without light or heat turn to hours and then days and eventually everything flickers out like a dying candle and the world goes dark. It is a devastating moment and as the evening creeps in Pavel, not for the first time, wishes that he had just stayed in Russia.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Time passes all at once.   Time passes in agonising seconds.    Two weeks pass.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>He lives in a barn now.</p><p>His mother always said he was messy.</p><p>He is staying there with four other people, which is nice.</p><p>They share chores and divide up the work evenly. There is no power anymore so Gaila makes a generator. There is no water, so Kevin fetches it. There are no threats but Hendorff stays vigilant. Marla organises the rest and teaches Pavel a thing or two about cooking. She tells him that they’re safe now. He is only fifteen but he recognises the empty pit of doubt that sits on his chest.</p><p>They reinforce the doors for protection against unwanted guests and Hendorff even teaches Pavel to use a knife for defence. He wants to try with a gun, which would give him long range protection, but the older man tells him, in a strong voice, that they don’t have the bullets to spare.</p><p>Instead he fixes an old van and they use it for supply runs. Slowly their barn builds into a home, a sanctuary. The old walls are splashed with memorabilia and their story is etched into the replacement roof. They gather things that remind them of Before, small trinkets that mean nothing to those that left them behind and everything to those who found them. Shiny rocks and little figurines adorn their bedding area in a meaningless but wonderful display of human perseverance.</p><p>For a while they exist outside of the world.</p><p> </p><p>At night he dreams.</p><p>His mind floods with darkness and shadowy figures he can only see from the corner of his eyes. It’s terrifying and he drowns. When he wakes to yet more inky blackness all there is little he can do to remove the crushing weight of what could have been. </p><p>On these nights he tries to imagine the stars and their placements in the sky, how they would look now it is summer. He traces lines above him in the gloom and draws out the constellations as he remembers them. They shine brightly in his mind and it makes him yearn for them ever more.</p><p>He wonders if his mother misses the stars as much as she misses him.</p><p>He wonders if she is even still alive.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Gaila is beautiful and as brilliant as the once existent sun. She shines on everything, a replacement glow illuminating the day. She is so bright. <em>So bright.</em> So bright he almost can’t see.</p><p>He learns a lot about engines and advanced technical devices he will never get to use. She tells him about her family, her home and how she knows they’re gone.</p><p>She tells him they have each other now.</p><p>Gaila is fierce as fire. She rises like a flame and won’t be put off by anything. God forbid anyone who gets in her way. It is awesome and scary but Pavel admires her and he thinks the others do too. When he falls ill she goes to the city alone to get medicine. It is an unjustified risk but she does it anyway. Afterwards she tells him he is family and it warms him more than his fever ever could.</p><p> </p><p>She is his sun and he hopes she never sets.</p><p> </p><p>Then.</p><p> </p><p>Gaila is dead.</p><p> </p><p>They all go out in the van and it goes <em>so </em>wrong.</p><p> </p><p>There is an ambush and –</p><p> </p><p>They were fighting and shouting and –</p><p> </p><p>He looks back and only he is left.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>he is alone now. Gaila is gone and so are the others. he sits in the dark and wonders when he’ll be gone. how long it will take. if going hurts. he sits and he wonders who will make him gone.</p><p>time passes slowly and no one makes him gone so he celebrates with a stolen beer and then commiserates because scotch was always more his thing. his days are spent silently walking, hand gripping his knife, anger gripping his heart. he looks for reasons to fight and finds many and somewhere along the way the cloud of red fades leaving only an empty hole where something so fragile had once sat.</p><p>still, Pavel travels the country, teaches himself to pick locks because Kevin said he would teach him, to navigate by the sun because Marla always muttered about how useful it would be, he collects trinkets [for Gaila] again but never stays in one place longer than a few days. it is easier to move, easier to leave than stay and remember his friends.</p><p> </p><p>he’s not sure how long he has been walking. it could have been days but he suspects it is probably closer to weeks. his food ran out four days ago and the last precious drops of his water swim about in the bottom of his flask. he is starving. all he can think about it the gnawing ache in his stomach and the dizzying pounding in his head but wants to stop but Hendorff wouldn’t stop so he doesn’t either.</p><p>The street bends in front of his eyes and he closes them and begs whichever cruel god that still exists to stop their games. It is dawn and the sky has lightened to its new normal. He thinks he might be in a residential area but his brain is sluggish and he can’t be sure. </p><p>He stumbles and curses, sending harsh syllables into the quiet street. It is getting harder to think.</p><p>Harder to walk.</p><p>He is so <em>drained</em> and his bag is too heavy.</p><p>
  <em>
    <strike>Marla wouldn’t give up now.</strike>
  </em>
</p><p>He pours the last trickles of water down his aching throat in an attempt to ward off his headache and curses the brewing tears that threaten to waste precious energy.  He carries on down the street and past the houses. To give up now, after everything he had done was unacceptable.</p><p>
  <em>
    <strike>Kevin wouldn’t give up now. </strike>
  </em>
</p><p>By the time he reaches the next street over the sun has fully risen and the muted colours of the new world are visible once again. He stumbles forward, tripping around cars and debris as he goes.</p><p>His legs start to shake and he knows that there isn’t much time left now.</p><p>
  <em>
    <strike>Hendorff wouldn’t give up now. </strike>
  </em>
</p><p>Ahead he can see a small shoe on the ground. It is palm sized and red and scuffed and he looks away before he starts to think about the fate of the owner.</p><p>He shuffles on, and the world slows its passing with each step.  Eventually, his legs give in and he sinks to the ground with tears in his eyes. He is shaking with fatigue and anger. Two years of fighting and pain and desperation just to go down in an abandoned street god knows where.</p><p>
  <em>
    <strike>Gaila wouldn’t give up now.</strike>
  </em>
</p><p>He topples onto his side with a shudder, relieved of the weight of his bag. His head hits cold, rough concrete with a crack, but his mind remains unconcerned about it. There is a growing numbness all over and he doesn’t know if it is the knowledge that he has lost or the relief that it’s finally over.</p><p>There is a demoralising finality to moment, like the final page in a book has been ripped out.</p><p>He feels cheated.</p><p>He knows nothing lasts forever but he tried.</p><p>He knows what comes next.  </p><p>
  <em>
    <strike>They wouldn’t give up now. </strike>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <strike>But I have. </strike>
</p><p>                               </p><p> </p><p>The van burns and figures dance in front of it, in front of the bodies of his friends.</p><p><em>People</em>, Pavel thinks, <em>are the only real monsters in this world.</em></p><p>One figure doesn’t dance.</p><p>It stands and stares and Pavel can feel the piercing of his dark eyes.</p><p>It burns his face.</p>
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